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[RC] forward seat - Nancy ZehetnerI recently was favorably introduced to the way forward seat by a horse trainer. ON a rainy weekend a couple of weekend ago, I attended a Cowboy Way event. Among the attractions was a clinic by a "horse whisperer." The title kind of threw me off, but I went over for a look anyway. His mike wasn't working and with the interstate noise booming in the background and a cool mist hitting my face, I decided to leave and listen to the music in the warm tent. Before leaving, I did check out the horse, a rough looking buckskin with untrimmed broken hooves and since I am single, I checked out the cowboy too, who was so skinny that his hiney would have swum inside his cowboy hat. After the show closed, I stopped by to ask the skinny cowboy if he got his mike to working. "Yep," he said and after a bit of conversing he asked if I would watch him the next day. The next day he worked with the same horse,
had it jumping a hay bale and then lo and behold after he got off the horse, he looked out at me in the audience and asked, "Nancy," would you like to ride this horse now?" Heck no, I didn't want to ride that horse and risk embarassing myself in front of all of those people. "Yes," I said. Well his instructions were too ride the horse exactly like he had with my body parallel to the horses neck. He explained the horse would stay confident as long as I would lie low. With my left hand on the reins and my right hand in a death clutch on the bucking strap (gotta get one of those), the cowboy took my cue and gigged that horse into a canter...trot, canter, trot, canter. After a while, my dime ran out and I sure felt confident as I dismounted carefully. Now I was anxious to try that on my big-head, bucking Blue. First,. I must add that that saddle was sure comfortable and riding forward like that made everything smooth. With all of the
transitions and direction changes, my jean legs didn't stir. As for riding Blue like this, it sure seems to discourage bucking and although my saddle is balanced differently, I feel reasonably secure. YOu would think with my nose so much closer to the ground, that Blue couold vault me easily. No way. And by the way, that cowboy is off to Oregon, gonna break 20 horses in 10 days. I believe him. He was nice enough to stop by on his way out of town and get Blue to load in 5 minutes time. Not a whisper, but a miracle. Nancy
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